Big Mother is Watching You - Even on the School Bus

The students of the Chippewa Elementary School are carrying tracking cards so officials are able to pinpoint exactly where and when they stepped aboard the school bus. Credit: Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune / MCT

Santa Claus would love to score the surveillance gizmos some helicopter parents are hovering about with these days.

He may see you when you're sleeping. He may know when you're awake. But up until now, you could get on and off the school bus without showing up on anyone's radar.

A flash and a beep tells Mom and Dad the child is safely on the bus. Likewise, when the child arrives at school, another flash and beep assures parents he wasn't abducted by aliens en route.

Palos Heights is the second school district in Illinois to employ a little high-tech to reassure jittery parents.

"I felt it was a responsibility on our part to do what we can," Superintendent Kathleen Casey tells the Tribune.

The newspaper reports parents' jitters stem, in part, from an incident last year when a first-grader missed his stop. He remained on the bus as it passed his waiting grandmother. The child never left the bus, but for 20 minutes, school officials and family members were frantic.

"It's a terrifying experience," Casey tells the Tribune. "I wondered if this technology would give us the ability to identify, 'Did a child get on the bus? Did they get off? If they got off, did they get off at the right stop?' "

About 5 percent of the nation's 490,000 school buses use student tracking technology, according to the National Association for Pupil Transportation.

The Freeport School District in northern Illinois also uses the system. It costs about $16,000 for every 10 school buses.

It's worth it, therapist David Klow with the Family Institute at Northwestern University, tells the Tribune.

"If technological advances make the parent feel less anxious and more at ease, then I think that can help," he says. "Whatever it's going to take for the parent to feel relaxed, because the child feeds off the parent."

So the parent gets peace of mind. But are the children really better off?

A survey of college freshmen by researchers at the Association of Psychological Science Convention held in Boston last May concludes children of fretful, safety-obsessed parents tend to be dependent and neurotic.

"We have a person who is dependent, who is vulnerable, who is self-conscious, who is anxious, who is impulsive, not open to new actions or ideas," lead researcher Neil Montgomery, a psychologist at Keene State College in New Hampshire, told MSNBC at the time.

"Is that going to make a successful college student?" he asked. "No, not exactly. It's really a horrible story at the end of the day."

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Why One Retiree Spent Her Life Savings On A School BusThe Toyota Standing O-Vation recipient in Miami is Estella Mims Pyfrom, CEO of Estella's Brilliant Bus, an organization aimed at helping children in underserved areas get educational training, empowering experiences and access to technology. Watch the video above to learn more about Estella's mission.

ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)

My school districts buses are all equipped with radios to the bus garage. My daughter failed to get off the bus a couple of times due to a substitute driver. A call to the bus garage calmed my fears and assured me that my daughter was safe and on her way home. Unlike what happened to my niece over a decade ago who fell asleep in the bus and ended up waking up in an empty bus in the bus garage! Luckily someone was in the office after she figured out how to open the door and get out. The driver claimed he checked the bus but was obviously lying!

I am sorry to hear about what happened to your niece. If the bus driver had truly checked the bus then he should have seen her sleeping on the bus then he should have been the one to cotact the parents. He should have also been the one to wait with her until the parents came to pick her up. I know when my son has a substitute bus driver he thinks he can get away with more but I talk to the substitute driver when they pick him up so they know that I will be waiting for him at the bus stop and my expectations for him. I also have the bus barn's number so I can cotact them with any concerns they are really great.Parn

I believe that if a parent is concerned enough to want to be beeped when their children get on and off the bus then they should drop off their children at school and pick them up that way they can make sure their child is safe. I understand the concern and worry but when you choose to put your child on a bus to go to school you are choosing to allow them the freedom to make the right decision and show you they are able to be grown up enough to ride the bus and get off when they are suppose to.

They say this electronic leash is supposed to make parents feel less anxious, but I think the ones who would "benefit" from it will just find something else to worry about. Like, "The bus comes at 8:00; it's 8:01 and little Billy still hasn't boarded! Panic attack!! Panic attack!!" Not to mention everything that could go wrong once he does get on. He could be picked on by bullies, realize he's forgotten his homework, have an asthma attack, or any number of other horrors could befall him. School buses are fraught with danger! Now they'll want to install security cameras so they can watch every second to make sure nothing ever happens to him. Nothing the establishment does will ever ease anyone's anxiety; people have to find peace of mind on their own and stop expecting Big Brother to run their lives for them. The world will never be safe. You just have to find some way to deal with that.

TheTalkies

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